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beam splitter

noun

, Optics, Photography.
  1. a mirror or prism that divides a beam of light into two parts by reflecting a part of the beam, used in camera range finders.


beam splitter

noun

  1. a system that divides a beam of light, electrons, etc, into two or more paths
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of beam splitter1

First recorded in 1930–35
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Example Sentences

They can be made to do so with a beam splitter, a half-silvered mirror set at an angle that will, with equal probability, transmit a photon or deflect it by 90°.

“You get the same information as if you had used a central beam splitter,” says Johannes Borregaard of the Delft University of Technology.

The first splits a laser beam in two by directing it through a beam splitter to both ends of the scale, where they are reflected by attached mirrors.

“Where should which adjusting screw go? What does the ideal beam splitter look like, and where do you position it? It then took about a year for all the parts to arrive and for me to put it together.”

Within it, a semireflective mirror, or beam splitter, sends half of a laser beam down each of the 600-meter-long arms of the L. After bouncing back and forth between mirrors at the ends of the arms, the light waves return to the beam splitter where they interfere.

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